Lizard-tail family
Lizard-tail family | ||||||||||||
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![]() Houttuynia cordata , leaves and inflorescence , with four white bracts and many bractless flowers |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Saururaceae | ||||||||||||
A.Rich. |
The lizard-tail plants (Saururaceae), also called newt-tail plants, are a family in the order of the pepper-like plants (Piperales) within the flowering plants (Magnoliopsida). The four genera with about six or seven species are common in the northern temperate latitudes ( Holarctic ).
Description and ecology
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Houttuynia_cordata-IMG_4566.jpg/220px-Houttuynia_cordata-IMG_4566.jpg)
Vegetative characteristics
They are biennial to perennial , herbaceous plants . They form rhizomes as persistence organs or stolons . There are Siebröhrenplastide S type available. The stems are articulated.
The simple, alternate and spiral or two-lined leaves on the stem are divided into petiole and leaf blade, very fleshy and aromatic. The simple leaf blades are usually elongated or ovate and heart-shaped or rounded at the base. They do not have a parallel nerve. The stomata are cyclocytic. There are stipules that are mostly fused with the petioles.
Generative characteristics
The flowers stand together in terminal, racemose or spike-like inflorescences . The attraction of pollinators often serve bracts (bracts).
The small flowers are radially symmetrical and hermaphroditic. Bracts are missing. There is a circle with three or two circles with three or four fertile stamens each. and three to five, mostly upper constant, carpels present. Androeceum and gynoeceum are fused along their entire length or only at the base or not. The two-celled pollen grains have no or an aperture and are sulcat. The most three, four or five most rare Upper permanent or only Anemopsis under constant carpels are free or partially or totally to unilocular ovary grown. The usually three to four or rarely five styles each end in a scar. In parietal placentation there are usually 20 to 40 (up to 50) orthotropic to hemianatropic, bitegmic tenuinucellate or crassinucellate ovules .
More or less fleshy follicles or capsule fruits are formed. The plants of the genus Saururus form aggregate fruits. The seeds contain sparse endosperm and abundant perisperm containing starch grains . The embryo is rudimentary and tiny at seed maturity.
ingredients
Cyanidin and the flavonoids kaempferol and quercetin have been found in all types of ingredients . They contain essential oils and accumulate calcium oxalate in crystals.
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/Anemopsis_californica_6.jpg/220px-Anemopsis_californica_6.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Saururus_cernuus.jpg/220px-Saururus_cernuus.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Saururus_chinensis_-_floraison.jpg/220px-Saururus_chinensis_-_floraison.jpg)
Systematics and distribution
The distribution is holarctic from the temperate to tropical areas in eastern Asia , in the southern USA and in Mexico .
The lizard-tail family (Saururaceae) only includes four genera with a total of only about six or seven species:
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Anemopsis
Hook. & Arn. : It contains only one type:
- California lizard tail ( Anemopsis californica (Nutt.) Hook. & Arn. ): It thrives in wet, alkaline, salty locations and coastal swamps at elevations of 0 and 2,000 meters from the western and central United States to northern Mexico .
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Gymnotheca Decne. : It contains only two types:
- Gymnotheca involucrata S.J.Pei : It thrives on roadsides and in damp places in forests at altitudes between 700 and 1000 meters in southern Sichuan .
- Gymnotheca chinensis Decne. : It is common in northern Vietnam and China . In the Chinese provinces of Guangdong , Guangxi , Guizhou , Hubei , Hunan , Sichuan and Yunnan , it thrives on rivers and in valleys at altitudes of (100 to) mostly 600 to 2000 meters.
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Houttuynia Thunb. : It contains only one type:
- Houttuynia cordata Thunb. : The common name chameleon plant refers to the different colored leaves of a single cultivar among many, but which is the only one that is widely used in Europe. It is common in Japan , Korea, Taiwan , China, Java , Indochina and the Himalayas . It is cultivated there as an important spice plant in numerous varieties.
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Newttail ( Saururus L. ): It contains only two species:
- American Newttail ( Saururus cernuus L. ): This marsh plant is native to eastern North America from Canada to Mexico. In northern Italy she is a neophyte .
- Asiatic Newttail ( Saururus chinensis (Lour.) Baill. ): It is distributed from India , Korea , Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Japan (including the Ryūkyū Islands ) to the Philippines .
use
Of Houttuynia cordata the fruit, leaves and underground parts of plants can be eaten and the medical effects were studied. The drug of Houttuynia cordata (Japanese segiun "new energy in the flow") from its leaves soothes swelling.
Saururus cernuus ( American newt tail , also American lizard tail ) and Saururus chinensis ( Asian newt tail , also Chinese lizard tail ) are used as aquarium plants .
swell
- The family of Saururaceae in APWebsite. (Sections Description and Systematics)
- The Saururaceae family at DELTA by L. Watson & MJ Dallwitz. (Section description)
- George F. Buddell II & John W. Thieret: Saururaceae in the Flora of North America , Volume 3: Online. (Sections Description and Systematics)
- Nianhe Xia, Anthony R. Brach: Saururaceae. , P. 108 - online with the same text as the printed work , Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven (Ed.): Flora of China. Volume 4: Cycadaceae through Fagaceae , Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis, 1999. ISBN 0-915279-70-3 (Sections Description and Systematics)
- Eckehart J. Jäger, Friedrich Ebel, Peter Hanelt, Gerd K. Müller: Excursion flora from Germany . Volume 5. Herbaceous ornamental and useful plants. Spectrum Academic Publishing House. Berlin, Heidelberg 2008. ISBN 978-3-8274-0918-8
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Saururaceae. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved June 2, 2018.
- ^ A b Nianhe Xia, Anthony R. Brach: Saururaceae. , P. 108 - online with the same text as the printed work , Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven (Ed.): Flora of China. Volume 4: Cycadaceae through Fagaceae , Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis, 1999. ISBN 0-915279-70-3
- ↑ Entries on Saururaceae in Plants For A Future
- ↑ Christel Kasselmann : aquarium plants. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1995; 2nd, revised and expanded edition 1999, ISBN 3-8001-7454-5 , p. 418 f.